Course Listing

This course will provide students with an introduction to environmental science and engineering by providing an overview of current environmental issues, including climate change, air pollution, and water pollution. Students critically evaluate underlying science and knowledge limitations, and explore the nexus between scientific knowledge, regulatory frameworks, and engineering solutions to some of the world's most pressing environmental problems. The course will emphasize the interconnected biological, geological, and chemical cycles of the earth system including the multi-dimensional impacts of human activity.

This course introduces students to the fluid Earth, emphasizing Earth's weather and climate, the carbon cycle, and global environmental change. The physical concepts necessary for understanding the structure, motion and energy balance of the atmosphere, ocean, and cryosphere are covered first, and then these concepts are applied in exploring major earth processes. Examples from Earth's past history, on-going changes in the climate, and implications for the future are highlighted.

An introduction to the science of global warming/ climate change, meant to assist students to understand issues that often appear in the news and public debates. The course is meant for any STEM student with a basic math preparation, not assuming prior science courses. Topics include: the greenhouse effect, and consequences of the rise of greenhouse gasses including sea level rise, ocean acidification, heat waves, droughts, glacier melting, hurricanes, forest fires and more. Throughout, an ability to critically evaluate observations, predictions and risk will be emphasized. The students will be involved in in-class quantitative analysis of climate observations, feedbacks and models via python Jupyter notebooks that will be provided.

An overview of the Earth's energy and material resources, including conventional and unconventional hydrocarbons, nuclear fuels, alternative/renewable energy resources, metals, and other industrial materials. The course emphasizes the geologic and environmental factors that dictate the availability of these resources, the methods used to identify and exploit them, and the environmental impacts of these operations. Topics include: coal and acid rain; petroleum exploration, drilling, and production, shale gas/oil, photochemical smog, and oil spills; nuclear power and radioactive hazards; alternative energies (solar, hydroelectric, tidal, geothermal power), metals and mining.

This course will examine the fundamental ecosystem and anthropogenic processes that govern the flow of carbon and nutrients in our environment. With five hands-on lab sessions covering topics such as carbon sequestration/mineralization, warming effect, methanogenesis, and nutrient removal, students will gain a holistic understanding and appreciation of physical, biological, chemical, and anthropogenic processes that shape our environment. The final lab will also serve as the final project where students design their own experiment and quantify/model the effect of global warming on an ecosystem process.

This course will take a hands-on approach to learning climate and atmospheric physics. Some of the topics covered will include the Greenhouse effect, hurricanes, climate variability, the jet stream, and global climate modeling. Students will learn to create effective data visualizations and read scientific literature. Each week will have one 165-minute session to perform laboratory experiments, run models, or analyze data. In this flipped-classroom environment, knowledge transfer will occur primarily outside of class through readings and pre-class assignments in preparation for each session. 

Physical concepts necessary to understand atmospheric structure and motion. Phenomena studied include the formation of clouds and precipitation, solar and terrestrial radiation, dynamical balance of the large-scale wind, and the origin of cyclones. Concepts developed for understanding today's atmosphere are applied to understanding the record of past climate change and the prospects for climate change in the future.

Chemical and physical processes determining the composition of the atmosphere and its implications for climate and life on Earth. Nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon cycles. Climate forcing by greenhouse gases and aerosols. Stratospheric ozone. Oxidizing power of the atmosphere. Methane. Surface air pollution: aerosols and ozone. Deposition to ecosystems: acid rain, nitrogen, mercury. Emphasis is on the construction of simple engineering models and the application of chemical principles to understand and address current environmental issues.

This course provides an introduction to the global hydrologic cycle and relevant terrestrial and atmospheric processes. It covers the concepts of water and energy balance; atmospheric radiation, composition and circulation; precipitation formation; evaporation; vegetation transpiration; infiltration, storm runoff, and flood processes; groundwater flow and unsaturated zone processes; and snow processes.

This course is focused on aspects of environmental engineering related to the fate, transport, and control of pollution in surface water ecosystems. Course modules will cover ecological impacts of environmental contaminants; fundamental chemistry of natural waters; surface water aspects of engineering hydrology, including rainfall-runoff relationships; quantitative models of pollutant fate and transport in rivers, lakes, estuaries, and wetlands; best management practices for the prevention and control of aquatic pollution; and sustainable natural treatment systems for water quality improvement.

Learn about environmental chemistry of the Earth, especially the intersections with human activities of pollution and technologies and approaches of environmental sciences and engineering. The focus is on water and soils. Topics include the hydrosphere, the distribution of chemical species in aquatic systems, gases in water, organic matter in water, metals and semi-metals in the hydrosphere, water pollution and water treatment chemistry, the terrestrial environment, soil properties, the chemistry of solid wastes, and toxic organic chemicals. 

The purpose of this course is to develop understanding and guide student research of human and environmental systems. In class we will explore agriculture, conflict, and transmissible disease. Study of each topic will involve introduction data, mathematical models, and analysis techniques that build toward addressing a major question at each interface: Have agricultural systems been adapted to climate change? Has drought caused conflict? And does the environment influence the spread of COVID-19? These questions are diverse, but are addressed using common analytical frameworks. Analytical approaches include simple mathematical models of feedback systems, crop development, and population disease dynamics; frequentist statistical techniques including linear, multiple linear, and panel regression models; and Bayesian methods including empirical, full, and hierarchical approaches. You will be provided with sufficient data, example code, and context to come to your own informed conclusions regarding each of these questions. Furthermore, topics covered in class will pro-vide a template for undertaking independent research projects in small teams. Research will either extend on topics presented in class or address other human-environmental questions. Historically, such student projects have sometimes led to senior theses or publication in professional journals.